Word Watch

By John Greenwald

Feeling that the word impotence had perjorative implications, a scientific panel last week suggested replacing it with a more neutral term, erectile dysfunction. Such coinages seem to be becoming increasingly common. Some other real and fanciful euphemetamophisms of ordinary language:

San Andreas Fault

San Andreas special characteristic

Christmas Cards

High-quality social-expression products

Defeated Candidates

Electorally slighted

Phone Sex

Nonspatial relations

Alcoholics

People of stupor

Bad Writing

Syntactically different